A Handful of Dust

A Handful of Dust is a novel by Evelyn Waugh published in 1934.

It is still in print, with a recent edition issued in Boston by Back Bay Books in 1999 with ISBN 0316926051

Tony and Brenda Last are upper crust Britons in the 1920s. Tony is preoccupied with the maintenance of his ancestral home, Hetton. Lady Brenda grows bored with life in the country. She takes up with John Beaver, a socialite of relatively meager means. Beaver's mother takes every advantage of the relationship: she encourages Brenda to secure an apartment in London and secures an agreement to remodel Hetton.

After tragedy strikes the Lasts, Brenda decides that she wants a divorce. Tony agrees to go through the sham of creating appropriate grounds for divorce. Their agreement on the divorce falls apart and Tony withdraws his consent. Instead, he participates in an expedition to find a lost city in Brazil.

Waugh's characters are almost entirely unsympathetic. Brenda is entirely self-involved. John Beaver's greatest skills are getting other people to pay for his drinks and being shown around a house. Only Tony has redeeming qualities, for which he is endlessly punished.

The novel is representative of Waugh's wit and biting satire.